Elite British bridge player drops dead after playing rare winning hand

Wendy Brown, 80, played a winning hand with 29 points. The maximum number of points in a bridge hand is 37. (SWNS.com/SWNS.com)

A top British bridge player dropped dead from excitement as she played an extremely rare hand en route to winning a county tournament.

Wendy Davis had more than 50 years of bridge-playing experience and was Cornwall's highest ranked player with Premier Life Status - but the sight of a high-scoring 6 No Trumps and an overtrick in her hand caused her to keel over last month at age 80.

With a highest possible bridge hand of 37, Davis's stunning run of cards scored her and her partner Maureen Brinton a total of 29 points - a hand seen in just one out of 150,000, bridge expert Gordon Rainsford told The Telegraph.

Davis, a widow with 12 grandchildren, had recently been in poor health and had cut down her card-playing appearances.

It's unclear if Davis had ever played such a high-scoring hand, but few of her friend's remembered having seen such an incredible array.

"I haven't seen a 29 point hand, if ever, or certainly not for a very long time. I can't remember seeing one with more points than that in the past 18 years or so," Benfield told the newspaper. "Wendy will no doubt have been extremely excited by getting such a hand. My theory is that she couldn't take the excitement."

The mother of four had shown up for the tournament "in good shape and good spirits" but "an hour and a half in, there was a cry from her partner, 'get an ambulance,'" Benfield said.

Brown, her son, said his mother experienced a sudden failure of a blood vessel near her heart.

"Her death was obviously a great shock and was very sudden, but looking back we are very happy she went this way," he told the Telegraph. "When I go myself I would love to think I'll go out like this, doing something I love."